1-1     By:  Shapleigh                                         S.B. No. 851
 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed March 3, 1999; March 8, 1999, read
 1-3     first time and referred to Committee on Jurisprudence;
 1-4     April 15, 1999, reported adversely, with favorable Committee
 1-5     Substitute by the following vote:  Yeas 3, Nays 0; April 15, 1999,
 1-6     sent to printer.)
 1-7     COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR S.B. No. 851                By:  Wentworth
 1-8                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-9                                   AN ACT
1-10     relating to an application for issuance of a subpoena.
1-11           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-12           SECTION 1.  Chapter 30, Civil Practice and Remedies Code, is
1-13     amended by adding Section 30.011 to read as follows:
1-14           Sec. 30.011.  ELECTRONIC SUBPOENA APPLICATION.  In addition
1-15     to any other procedure permitted under state law or by court rule,
1-16     an application for issuance of a subpoena may be made by electronic
1-17     means.
1-18           SECTION 2.  Subsection (a), Article 24.03, Code of Criminal
1-19     Procedure, is amended to read as follows:
1-20           (a)  Before the clerk or his deputy shall be required or
1-21     permitted to issue a subpoena in any felony case pending in any
1-22     district or criminal district court of this State of which he is
1-23     clerk or deputy, the defendant or his attorney or the State's
1-24     attorney shall make an [written, sworn] application in writing or
1-25     by electronic means to such clerk for each witness desired. Such
1-26     application shall state the name of each witness desired, the
1-27     location and vocation, if known, and that the testimony of said
1-28     witness is material to the State or to the defense.  The
1-29     application must be filed with the clerk [and placed with the
1-30     papers in the cause] and made available to both the State and the
1-31     defendant.  Except as provided by Subsection (b) [of this article],
1-32     as far as is practical such clerk shall include in one subpoena the
1-33     names of all witnesses for the State and for defendant, and such
1-34     process shall show that the witnesses are summoned for the State or
1-35     for the defendant.  When a witness has been served with a subpoena,
1-36     attached or placed under bail at the instance of either party in a
1-37     particular case, such execution of process shall inure to the
1-38     benefit of the opposite party in such case in the event such
1-39     opposite party desires to use such witness on the trial of the
1-40     case, provided that when a witness has once been served with a
1-41     subpoena, no further subpoena shall be issued for said witness.
1-42           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-43     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-44     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-45     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-46     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-47     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-48     passage, and it is so enacted.
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